Critical investment, advocacy needed to enhance reading culture among children – Stakeholders

The Regional Director for West Africa for World Reader, Lesley Tettey has called for increased investment and advocacy aimed at creating a reading culture, particularly among children in Ghana.

According to him, the average school system must have reading at the core of its subjects and on the timetable of schools.

Speaking at an executive breakfast conversation with Worldreader and its partners as part of celebrations for International Literacy Day 2023, Tettey said enhanced reading and literacy have the potential to open up the world to children and therefore wants parents to create an enabling environment of reading culture for their children.

“For us at World Reader, we are trying to make books readily available on our digital platforms for children to read while working with telcos as part of their Social Corporate Responsibility to provide zero-rated downloading for some of these books,” he noted.

Leslie Tettey however called on the government to lend their support to Civil Society Organisations that are making giant strides to instill reading and literacy culture among Ghanaian children.

President of the Ghana Publishers Association, Asare Konadu Yamoah on his part emphasized for government intervention in building a reading culture amongst the citizenry and children in particular.

He stressed that children are the future leaders and therefore critical investment in their upbringing must be paramount.

“Reading and literacy is something you deliberately learn and although corporate organizations and CSOs like World Vision and World Reader may be doing their best, it may not be enough without the government’s support,“ Yamoah stated.

Meanwhile, National Director of World Vision Ghana, Laura Cristina Delvalle during her remarks highlighted that about 98 percent of grade 2 children in Ghana could not read while half of this number cannot identify a single letter sound.

According to her, a baseline survey conducted by World Vision Ghana in 2021 also found that only 3 percent of children in grade 2 can read with comprehension.

“When compared to the National Early Grade Assessment results, which found only 2% of grade 2 children who could read with comprehension, it leaves no doubt that a concerted effort is needed to eradicate child illiteracy,” Delvalle disclosed.

The World Vision Director said the organisation will continue to partner key stakeholders like World Reader, Pencils of Promise, the Complementary Education Agency, UNESCO, the government through the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders to improve child literacy and education outcomes.

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